


Tick Tock (Goes the Clock)

by Angst_BuriTTo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Clockwork Doll AU, Clockwork Doll Bucky Barnes, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Kinda, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 16:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18578560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angst_BuriTTo/pseuds/Angst_BuriTTo
Summary: Steve Rogers is Head of SHIELD Inc; the worlds leading Clockwork Doll company that makes and raises Clockwork Dolls.Steve has dedicated his life to SHIELD and his passion of creating Clockwork Dolls with Engineering and Magik and rescuing and repairing broken and discarded Dolls.Bucky Barnes is a Doll with more Personality than any before him, at least ones not created by SHIELD.Bucky is also an illegal and unwilling Testing Doll at HYDRA Inc, known as "The Asset".They never expected that one day, their world would change with just one phonecall.





	Tick Tock (Goes the Clock)

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm nervous about this, this is my original creation AU idea, and I would love to hear your thoughts and (Kind) feedback!

 

 

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Twisting the wrench just a little bit to the left, Steve smiled as the clockwork gears began to turn, the rhythmic clicking a beautiful sound in his ears. Reaching inside of himself for the store of Magik all Doll Makers have, Steve carefully cupped the empty Dolls head piece, and kissed where the forehead would be.

A soft clicking sound filled the Doll, and Steve watched with pride and awe as the once bronze and copper doll became flesh-toned underneath the generic gown he placed on it. Slowly features began to emerge as he watched.

The sight of a Dolls creation never seized to amaze him, especially when it was him who was giving life to them.

The Clockwork Doll twitched its small limbs, the magik now giving it fluidity where before there was only stiff metal.

Steve smiled as the Doll’s features settled, skin beautifully mocha and cheeks chubby, and it opened curios dark brown eyes, hidden behind long dark lashes. The Doll squeaked, its small voice box not yet able to connect with its clockwork-and-magik brain.

The Doll would learn to talk and walk as it grew and aged, and would get tune ups and bigger parts on the places even magik couldn’t grow; some Doll’s limbs wouldn’t adapt to the magik, and would have to be manually installed by a Doll Maker.

SHIELD was known to have the most autonomous and Alive Dolls in the world, with other Doll companies struggling to make their Dolls less Doll-like and more human.

Granted, nothing anyone did would fix the fact that you could tell a Doll from a human; there was always a tell-tale glass look to their eyes, and every doll’s shell would sound and feel like metal when you touched it, and there would always be a wind up switch on the back of a Doll’s head that would tell them a Doll’s age, and counted their years Alive.

The real difference between SHIELD Doll’s and the rest, was in the personalities and movements. The Dolls that SHIELD made and raised had a Life to them that other Doll’s couldn’t compare to, and they talked, walked, and thought just like a human would. Doll’s from other Maker’s tended to have stiffer movements, their speech stilted and spaced, and couldn’t emote like SHIELD-raised and created Doll’s could.

Some people thought that SHIELD just turned humans into Doll’s, some people said that SHIELD hired good engineers.

Steve, personally, believed that it was in the way the Doll’s were raised and cared for, and made with such care to detail, each piece created with a spark of magik, of care.

The little Doll on the padded table began to whine, and Steve coo’d at -her, he realized, with a peak in the gown; The Doll had decided on female for now- her and picked the Doll up, rocking her in his arms. She reached up, her movements stiff like all newly Created Doll’s, and patted his cheek, making cooing and clicking noises.

“Hello little one,” Steve murmured to his newest Doll, “Welcome to the world.”

Steve rocked the Doll until she fell into rest, humming a little tune. When the Doll started making the little humming noise that told him she had entered rest, Steve walked toward the rolling crib he put together while he was creating her. Placing her in the crib, Steve began walking toward the nursery and out of the workshop, smiling down at the new Doll.

He didn’t notice anyone walking up beside him until they spoke, making him twitch in surprise.

“What are you going to name her?” Natasha asked him, looking with a rare soft smile at her newest fellow Doll.

“I’m thinking…America,” Steve smiled sheepishly at Natasha’s raised brow.

“Really Rogers?” she teased, making him blush lightly.

“It just feels right,” Steve defended, keeping his voice quiet. Natasha softened teasing gone from her face.

“She’s beautiful, Steve, and the name suits her,” the red-haired Clockwork Doll patted him on the arm as they reached the nursery.

“You did an amazing job, as usual.”

Steve blushed heavily, looking down and carefully stroking a hand down the infant Doll’s cheek.

“Thanks, Tasha,” typing in his code for the Nursery, Steve pushed the crib through the door, relaxing as he heard the humming and soft clicks that filled the large room; Nap time must have started not long ago, and Steve was grateful that it wasn’t loud in-case it woke America. It probably wouldn’t have; Doll’s tended to rest until they were done, and not a moment sooner. Noise wouldn’t usually wake them, but Steve did it out of habit.

Steve pushed the crib into one of the open spaces along the Nursery wall and connected the monitoring plugs into the built-in gear and magik sensors in the crib. Each infant Doll crib had a monitor set into their crib so that the pediatric Doll nurses could keep an eye on the health and development of each infant Doll.

Gently closing the glass door of the nursery on his way out, Steve set the security on the door again. Turning to Natasha, he sent he a smile.

“Wanna get some lunch?”

The Red-headed Doll let out an amused huff, shaking her head.

“You forget sometimes that we don’t need to eat like you do, Steve,” Natasha started walking towards the cafeteria anyways, Steve following.

“I don’t really think of you guys as anything less then human,” Steve said, “You guys are so… _alive_. I forget sometimes that species-wise you’re not human.”

“I still can’t see how you can forget so easily that we aren’t human,” Steve could hear something in Natasha’s voice that made him frown.

He would never regret saving Natasha from her old Makers, a now shut-down Doll company called The Red Room. When it was discovered that The Red Room was making and raising female Clockwork Dolls to be assassins and hit women, the government had sent SHIELD in to investigate and shut down the company. Most of the Doll’s were too-far gone, small killing machines and hit-Dolls. But Steve saw something different in the young, 10 year old Natasha, and had saved her from being humanely shut down, her magik and gears stopped. He had helped Natasha with becoming more then what The Red Room had used her for, and used some of his magik to replace the corrupted magik that The Red Room had used to make their Doll’s into weapons and nothing more.

Steve had a habit of saving Broken and Discarded Doll’s, and Doll’s that needed help; quite a few of them worked in SHIELD now. Natasha was his first, almost 15 years ago now, when he was 20 years old and SHIELD was a well respected, but young company. Steve had only taken over as head of SHIELD months before then.

“You are human in every way that actually matters, Nat,” Steve told her sternly, and was relieved to see Natasha’s face soften, and a small smile touch her lips.

“If you say so, Rogers,” her tone suggested she didn’t care, but Steve could see the pleased look in her eyes.

“I _know_ so.”

 

 

 

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End file.
